Fests and events, 10/23.

"Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, a 90-minute piece by the video artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, tracks the great French-Algerian soccer player Zinedine Zidane during the course of a single match," writes J Hoberman. "Gordon's previous work - the famous 24 Hour Psycho installation, which slowed Hitchcock's thriller to a glacial crawl; his superimposition of The Song of Bernadette over The Exorcist - served to monumentalize ephemeral moments. Zidane does the same, to lesser effect." More from Cullen Gallagher (L Magazine), Michael Tully (Hammer to Nail) and Bill Weber (Slant). At BAM from Friday through October 30.

Back in the Voice: "News From Home/News From House is the 2006 installment in Amos Gitai's documentary series that also includes House (1980) and A House in Jerusalem (1998)," writes Martin Tsai. "Revolving around property that once belonged to a Palestinian family and was later taken over by Israelis, the films juxtapose the Israeli and Palestinian diasporas by tracking the original owner's descendants, the construction workers, and the current occupants over the years." Screens at MoMA as part of Amos Gitai: Non-Fiction, running Friday through November 2.

Mitchell Leisen "displays rare versatility as a director, moving fluidly from melodrama to screwball, pastoral to noir, often within the same film," writes David Cairns at Moving Image Source. "With retrospectives at San Sebastian in 2000, Edinburgh in 2006, and now at the Cinematheque Française, Leisen's renaissance may finally be upon us, long overdue but still timely." Through November 2.

"XYZ are proud to present A Lecture by John Bock. The Lecture will take place on board a city bus that will travel through the streets of downtown Athens, on Wednesday, October 29th 2008.... The Lecture by John Bock will be followed by a Retrospective of films by the artist, from October 30th to November 5th 2008, at Mikrokosmos Cinema."

Susan King in the Los Angeles Times: "It's getting to the point where there is such a plethora of film festivals in Los Angeles that if you miss one, another will be on the horizon in a nanosecond. And this week is no exception."

James C Taylor in the LA Weekly: Frederick Wiseman's "evenhandedness combined with his eye for unforgettable vérité scenes - a young female physician trying to get an elderly immigrant to discuss his urinary problems, patients singing 'Santa Maria' in the hospital's chapel - is what makes Hospital still relevant and engrossing today, and should keep it that way, regardless of the future of health care in America." At REDCAT tonight at 8.

For SF360, Robert Avila reviews "Robb Moss and Peter Galison's deliberative, atmospheric and engrossing documentary, Secrecy, receiving its theatrical premiere this week as part of a new San Francisco Film Society initiative, SFFS Focus: Investigative Documentary."

The Queens International Film Festival takes place from November 6 through 9.

"Al Pacino has been given a lifetime achievement award at the Rome Film Festival." The BBC reports; and the AP has the latest on David Cronenberg's novel.

"Earlier this week I spent a long and, in every sense of the word, sober lunch in a trattoria in Turin with fellow jury members at the world's longest running environmental film festival, Cinemambiente, now in its 11th year. Each of us had dutifully watched the 10 shortlisted films, but how do you even begin to choose between films about, say, the societal and environmental influence of the new market economy in Mongolia, the imperialistic excesses of western gold miners in Guinea or the men who break up ships by hand on the oil-stained beaches of Bangladesh for a dollar a day?" In the Guardian, Leo Hickman explains why they settled on Justin Pemberton's The Nuclear Comeback and considers the question, "What makes a good environmental film?"

"This year's Puchon Fantastic Film Festival continued on last year's orientation of 'playing it safe' plus 'regaining its foothold as Korea's major conduit for genre cinema.'" A report from Kyu Hyun Kim at Koreanfilm.org.

The Conversation, a gathering of "pioneers at the forefront of change in cinema, video, games, media and technology," happened last weekend and Scott Kirsner points to video, photos and notes at the event's blog before listing "some things that made such an impression on me that I had to jot them down."

Kevin Lee lists "TIFF and NYFF screenings, from best to worst."

At Hollywood Bitchslap, Jason Whyte picks the "Best Films of the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival."

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has announced it's developing a new online resource for Jewish film.

Online viewing tips. In conjunction with the Werkleitz Festival's Amerika (don't be offended; that simply how you spell it in German), a virtual film program.

Posted by dwhudson at October 23, 2008 2:00 PM